Most Luxurious Replica Rolex Submariner at a Good Price

I was greatly surprised to hear that Rolex Submariner sold at a shocking price, becoming the most expensive Submariner ever sold at auction and the very first to enter seven-figure territory. With Daytonas routinely hammering for prices like this, it’s tough to believe that the iconic Sub had never reached these heights. But it’s the real thing. Here are some ideas about why this watch fetched such a sum and a little context for the top-end vintage Submariner market more broadly.
You can likely tell that it’s not your run-of-the-mill Submariner by looking at this watch. I mean, it’s not even your run-of-the-mill big crown. To begin with, it has an Explorer dial, something super rare to see on a 6538. Then, if you look closer, you’ll find that the depth rating is both meters-first, reading “200/660” with no actual units present, and it’s printed in red rather than white or gilt. Right here we’ve got the makings of a wonderful storm Submariner.
We all know that’s now how things work and there’s a significant lesson to be learned here about where the value in a watch actually sits. This replica watch is coming fresh to the market from the family of an original owner who has a pretty strong story about having acquired the fake watch as an actual tool and then wearing it every day for decades. That always helps things along. Then there’s the sheer rarity of the dial configuration and the condition of that dial, which is so perfect. The scratches you see are in the crystal and the dial, as far as I could tell at last week’s preview, was in great shape. In the end, there’s the honesty of the case, which doesn’t look so sharp that you’d be concerned about tampering but also hasn’t been ground down into a blob. It retains its original lines and looks like a worn-in watch.
What I’m really interested to see is that if the watch ends up popping back up on the private market in the next year or two, fitted with a perfectly faded bezel and a tight, period-correct bracelet. To tell the truth, it wouldn’t surprise me at all, and it will probably be given a nickname to go along with the expensive price – the Aquaman or the King of the Seas or some such nonsense.
Therefore, at this point, you might be experiencing a bit of déjà vu. That’s because I wrote something not entirely dissimilar about another Submariner last year, which then set the world record price. Now, that was a very different watch, and it achieved that price for very different reasons, but if you bring something undiscovered to auction and tell a good story about it, records are up for grabs.